


Loyalty For Sale

by HSavinien



Category: The Locked Tomb Trilogy | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir
Genre: Gen, Podfic Available, Pre-Canon, References to bullying, Teenagers, references to child soldiers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:33:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23157868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HSavinien/pseuds/HSavinien
Summary: Gideon Nav believes in very few things.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Loyalty For Sale

Gideon was only 45% sure at any given time that the Emperor Undying actually existed anymore outside promo vids and prayers. (Sure, death was the purview of necromancers and he was supposed to be the strongest one to have ever lived - and also a great warrior? - with the power to maintain himself and his lyctors way beyond any reasonable lifespan, but _come on_.)

So her loyalty to him was conditional, if by that you meant that she was 100% ready to swear herself loyal and dedicated, life and death, to his service forever to anyone who would just get her off (heh) this creepy-ass rock and let her fight. Literally anyone. She would swear any oath they asked. 

Aiglamene talked big about loyalty and fealty and shit in between footwork and drills, but mostly it seemed like one more chain. It wasn't one that Gideon planned to believe in one minute longer than necessary, but she could pretend until she didn't have to. She didn't feel the need to pretend to the Reverend Daughter for even a second. 

Fucking Harrowhark had come up with a new game that involved Gideon and hours-long meditation in the crypts with a sharp elbowed great-aunt to jab her awake whenever the cold and boredom made her nod off. Gideon was collecting slimy things to smear in her bed, but it didn't seem like nearly enough. She needed to get out of here forever. The feelers she'd put out with clandestine searches of anything offworld had given her some ideas; the Cohort would take most people who were young and healthy and her already-decent sword skills seemed like they'd help. If fifteen year olds could be officers, probably fourteen year olds could be soldiers. 

She'd figure out a way to escape. She'd break the security cuff, wrangle passage offworld, and shake the dust from her shoes. Harrow and all the creep-ass powers of her and Crux and Ortus and all of them combined wouldn't stop Gideon. She'd be free of Harrow and the entire bedamned House of the Ninth. The Reverend Daughter could _suck it_.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Loyalty For Sale | written by HSavinien](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29740098) by [Tipsy_Kitty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tipsy_Kitty/pseuds/Tipsy_Kitty)




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